Africa is facing a severe problem with counterfeit drugs. The costs associated with the use of counterfeit medicines — to individuals, families and health systems — are staggering.
What if we could track, trace, and authenticate the drugs at each stage of their journey, from the pharma company all the way to the patient? That’s exactly what researchers at the IBM lab in Haifa, Israel are doing. IBM researchers are using blockchain technology to introduce traceability and trackability into the supply chain. This solution from IBM Research includes a mobile interface and the permissioned blockchain backend that gives each certified and authorized party in the network a way to initiate action, finish their transaction, track its progress, and verify that it was done correctly.